Lucent Dossier Experience

Imagine if Cirque du Soleil embraced an underworld where abundant sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll reigned. That’s a good way to bottle up the Lucent Dossier Experience on stage.

As a trapeze artist twisted through a steel half-moon hoisted up above the stage to the beat of a thrashing dub-step number, a wide-eyed Coachella festivalgoer, mouth agape, stopped in his path and yelled, “What the … is this?” to his friends. A question that wasn’t really answered.

The high-concept circus felt like a musical set against some sort of post-apocalyptic wasteland — apropos considering the desert backdrop — as a Björk-esque vocalist weaved wordless riffs through onstage vignettes that featured aerial artists, dancers and a fire-eating fellow dressed like a punk-rock alien, whatever that actually might look like.

As an aerialist soared into the air tangled in silk, with dancers dressed like deformed creatures bopping their heads and wiggling their extended fingers to the rocking electronic sounds, you couldn’t help but affirm the overused cliché — the freaks do come out at night.